Mayer’s self-released debut EP, Inside Wants Out included the likes of “Love Soon” and “Comfortable,” which showed the potential he would release on his proper debut, Room for Squares. 

 Although its unrepentant mellowness started to wear by the end, the record’s finely sketched lyrical snapshots and subtle melodies seemed to be grooming Mayer for soccer-mom heartthrobdom. And to his credit, he sounded like he couldn’t think of anything finer. 

 Mayer’s label clearly pushed its luck with the two-disc live album, Any Given Thursday, the third release in three years to rely on essentially the same material, padded with cover songs (“Message in a Bottle”) and the previously unreleased “Something’s Missing”.  

 By the end of 2003, Mayer finally offered a set of new material in the form of a 10-track studio album, Heavier Things. Playing it safe, he made no radical departures from the success of Squares, aside from the occasional horn flourish and some off-kilter guitar textures.  

 You need some energy to get through 2004’s five-volume As/Is, a live-set behemoth that included acoustic takes of his hits and three similar versions of 2002’s “No Such Thing.” (Volume One is now out of print.)  

 Mayer’s biggest leap into electric blues - a natural step for a guy who’d recently guested on albums by Buddy Guy, B.B. King, and Eric Clapton – in which he pays tribute to the greats with covers of Jimi Hendrix and Ray Charles. He has chops, but more like Dave Matthews than Stevie Ray Vaug... 

 If Mayer was sliding into the AC circuit, he was also growing up: Iraq War protest songs showed he was finally paying attention to the great big world outside his pants. This was not the sound of one man’s struggle. It was the sound of one man trying to find something – anything - to struggle... 

 The three John Mayers – the electric-blues stalwart, the bearskin-rug balladeer, and the corporate-sponsored-venue headliner – all started to sound like the same guy on Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles, a three-disc album and concert DVD. 

 For all his funny-guy charm in real life, Mayer’s music remained earnest, as if joking around was beneath the dignity of the Berklee grad. Even the cover of 2009’s Battle Studies was so self-serious, it rendered him in black and white, looking like he was trying hard not to crack a smile.